


Redwater

by RomulanAle



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 23:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13445964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomulanAle/pseuds/RomulanAle
Summary: The small town of Redwater, Washington is a scenic small town with a close-knit public and the beauties of nature. Rose Hashimoto is a young librarian searching for a fresh start, and she's sure Redwater is where she'll finally find it. However, nothing could have prepared her for how strange this town really is. The citizens are secretive, nature seems to have a mind of its own, and the outside world has absolutely no influence over the community. Moving is always difficult.





	Redwater

               The roads were slick with fat raindrops that seemed to fall downward in a relentless torrent. The car on the side of the road was a deep blue, but in the amount of faint moonlight that rippled through the foliage surrounding it, it might as well have been black. Daniel Barton slammed the passenger door with slightly more force than was absolutely necessary and made his way through gravel and thick grass to where the blood from the ruined deer clung to his boots. The buck was large, as was the dent in the hood of the car. Steam rose steadily from where the crumpled hood was separated from the front bumper. Abigail Barton still sat in the passenger side, wiping her red face on her sleeve. Her cellphone was clutched in her other hand. Her mother’s voice filtered through.

               “Yes, mom,” She managed to mumble after several moments, “I’ve already called 911. They said they’ve sent a dispatch. I don’t know, it just jumped out in front of us. Poor thing.”

               Abigail resumed crying. Daniel was on his cellphone, too. He was currently in the process of trying to hire a tow truck to tow them to the nearest town. It was close, he was telling them, there was a sign about ten feet forward of the car, visible in the headlight that wasn’t broken. There were some reassurances that the truck would be there as quickly as it could, and Daniel gave himself a moment to be grateful for those small-town types. That was why he and Abigail were out here this late anyway. They had been driving for quite some time. The brochure for the hotel they were planning to stay in had fallen to the floor during the accident, and was currently under Abigail’s shoe. Life in the city had its charms, but Daniel had insisted they take a vacation to a more isolated and rural location. He had grown up in a small town, and missed nature and the occasional hunting trip. He was now regretting that decision.

               Daniel waited until the other line clicked and went dead, and then he allowed his phone screen to go dark. Something caught his eye. A flicker of movement in the vicinity of the deer’s corpse. The muffled sound of Abigail’s voice reached him even through the cracked windshield. He could hear her blubber to her mother.

               There it was again. The slightest twitch. Perhaps a muscle contracting involuntarily in the animal’s face. The last breath escaping. The animal had seemed dead seconds after colliding with the car. Its neck was practically bent into a ninety-degree angle. Its eyes wide and glassy. Legs sprawled unnaturally and blood soaking the ground, exiting from multiple wounds as well as the beast’s nose and mouth.

               Daniel took a step closer. And then another. Another. He studied the face, the body. Something had moved, he was sure of it. Perhaps the light of the moon or the headlight refelecting off of blood or teeth. He moved his head forward and back, side to side, trying to replicate what he had seen. Before he realized what he was doing, his knees protested as he squatted down to inspect the buck. It could have been some hunter’s trophy of the season, had it not done substantial damage to his car, and the car to it. There. Daniel noticed something in the open mouth. It shone in the light. It was far back, almost in the throat.

               “What on earth…” Daniel muttered, then felt very foolish for saying it out loud. It seemed even more foolish to reach into a dead deer’s mouth, but he found himself considering the option more and more as the elements of whatever he could see increasingly confused him. He took a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket, wrapped it around his fingers, and slid them past the teeth.

               He screamed as the teeth closed around his hand. He tried to pull back, but the mouth was clenched closed, the teeth intent on meeting each other through the bones and flesh of his knuckles. Red blood and wild, yellowed, teeth glinted menacingly. He didn’t hear the car door open and close, but he assumed it must have, because his wife’s shrieking could be heard underneath his own cries for help. The animal was making noises now, or rather, there were noises coming from it. Its mouth didn’t open, the teeth still piercing Daniel’s skin, bones now breaking, snapped under the pressure. But a sound not unlike a low moan was building up. The legs began to kick wildly. Daniel’s screams were out of his control as the spasming body pulled and pushed, taking four of Daniel’s fingers with it. This time, the mouth did open. Enough so that both Daniel, who was on the ground desperately grasping at his hand where blood was gushing from the holes in the places where bones had broken, and Abigail, who was yelling into her phone and attempting to drag her husband away, could both see the dark liquid bubbling out of the beast’s mouth along with Daniel’s blood. At their horror, the buck began to stand shakily. Its eyes were wild and rolling back in its head. They seemed to glow in the headlight. It took a step closer to them, it’s hooves jerking and uncoordinated. The moaning sound was louder this time as the deer’s mouth fell open, its jaw was clearly broken.

               The animal reared, its heaving body standing on two legs before the forehooves crashed down dangerously close to Daniel and Abigail’s legs. The voice from the phone was sounding desperate now, but was barely audible over the couple’s screaming and yelling and the sickly noise rising above it all.

               There was a large metal sign just ten feet away. The buck reared and kicked again, creeping closer. Just past it, if you cared to look, was the image of a waterfall. The rocks black and the water a bright crimson.

               WELCOME TO REDWATER


End file.
